Attention

Friday, June 13, 2014

Beggars can't be choosers, but they can have strong, brand-driven alcoholic preferences.

A study undertaken by public researchers found that underage drinkers not only have a knack for drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, but they're also pretty picky about which branded alcohols they down when they do over-drink. The study found that underage drinkers are more loyal to brand names than they are to anything else.

"The most important finding is that the phenomenon of binge drinking among our youth is extremely brand specific," Dr. Michael Siegel, professor at Boston University School of Public Health and one of the study's authors, said in an interview. "For the first time we've found the brands that are most responsible for binge drinking among our nation's youth."More

A bill to allow consumers to refinance their student loans to the rate currently being issued on new federal and private student loans succumbed to a painful death on the Senate floor Wednesday despite being championed by consumer advocates.

Days ago, ten members of Congress sent letters to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, and the team’s stadium naming rights holder FedEx, along with the league’s 31 other franchises, urging them to have ‘Redskins’ changed due to the name’s offensive nature.

In response, the longtime chief of a major Virginia-based tribe went on the record to say he’d actually be offended if the team DID change the name.

Robert “Two Eagles” Green, who retired from his presiding role over the 1300-member Patawomeck Tribe in March, was a guest on SiriusXM NFL Radio’s “The Opening Drive” on Wednesday.

Joining the nuns in their crusade to shut down the club that sits in the town of Stone Park is the village of Melrose Park, where the convent is located. The club sits inches from the convent’s fence line in the neighboring village, reports NBC 5 in Chicago.

Despite the fact that the sisters were unable to prevent the opening of the club, the fight goes on with the village voting to join them in their lawsuit — set to be filed this week — against the club and the Village of Stone Park, which gave the club its license last year.

“This goes against our whole fiber, our well-being,” said one sister who lives in the structure bordering the club’s property. “We’ve been here more than 70 years,” she said. “We’re fighting for a safe, healthy environment here. And for the club to close.”

It's always irritating to listen to someone harp about some perceived injustice that just isn't true. My kids at bedtime for example -- they really don't think it's fair that I get to stay up later than them. I tell them when they get jobs and start contributing to the household finances, we'll talk. Until then, all's fair in love, war, and children's bedtimes.

Another totally fake injustice I keep hearing people squabble about is "equal pay." President Obama has been harping about it on Twitter all day Tuesday, or at least whoever manages his social media accounts has been posting graphics claiming that it's not 1963 anymore, and it's time for women to receive equal pay. Just in case you're wondering about the relevance, June 10 is the 51st anniversary of JFK signing the Equal Pay Act of 1963, abolishing wage discrepancies based on gender.

This week alone, Obama announced that he would unilaterally change student loan rules, allowing borrowers to avoid paying off more of their debt; he signaled that he would continue his non-enforcement of immigration law, even as thousands of children cross the border; he defended his non-disclosure of a terrorist swap to Congress.

This is not just executive overreach. In many cases, Obama’s exercise of authoritarian power is criminal. His executive branch is responsible for violations of the Arms Export Control Act in shipping weapons to Syria, the Espionage Act in Libya, and IRS law with regard to the targeting of conservative groups. His executive branch is guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Benghazi and in the Fast and Furious scandal, and bribery in its allocation of waivers in Obamacare and tax dollars in its stimulus spending. His administration is guilty of obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

About 2,900 Frederick County residents in the past year have declared a new party affiliation, with about 40 percent of them shunning both Republican and Democratic labels.

From June 1, 2013, to May 31, 1,181 county residents changed their voter registrations to become unaffiliated or to join the Green or Libertarian parties, according to county elections officials. Though Republican and Democratic ranks have grown since the last gubernatorial primary in 2010, the fastest-expanding group of Frederick County voters have eschewed the two main political designations. Statewide trends mirror the local pattern, as voters tire of the partisan bickering they associate with the dual-party system, a political expert said.

"Negative campaigning and polarized politics are almost a systemic turnoff for many voters. Politicians behaving badly," said Herbert Smith, political science professor at McDaniel College. More

Hillary Clinton likes to present herself as an everywoman, facing the same challenges that bedevil all families, living in sync with their trials and tribulations, overcoming adversity as we all try to do. The latest iteration of her wish to downplay her wealth so as to be just plain folks was her bald assertions to Diane Sawyer that she and Bill were “dead broke” and “in debt” when she left the White House, struggling to “you know, piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, Chelsea’s education, you know, it was not easy.”

Some dead broke! Some “not easy.” Consider this:

–Her joint tax return with Bill for 2001 showed a $16,165,110.00 income for her first year out of the White House.

–Even before they left the White House, their joint income for 2000 was $359,000, scarcely in the “dead broke” category, particularly when you consider that the Clintons had none of the normal expenses that the rest of us do. Housing, cars, child care, insurance, electricity, landscaping, health care, these are all covered by the taxpayers. All they had to pay for was dry cleaning, food and college tuition for Chelsea. Most people could make that work.

Melinda Gates, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has announced that her international family planning foundation will no longer fund abortion because she believes abortion and family planning have become “conflated.”

Gates, wife of the Microsoft founder and a self-professed Catholic, said in a statement on the foundation’s website, titled Impatient Optimists, that she grew concerned about the intertwining of family planning and abortion recently when she was interviewed in Toronto. Though reporters asked her about the Gates Foundation’s newborn and child health initiatives, she said, “every journalist also focused on Canada’s policy on abortion.”

“Around the world there is a deep, broad, and powerful consensus: We should provide all women the information and tools to time and space their pregnancies in a safe and healthy way that works for them,” Gates explained. “This approach is simple, it works, and it saves lives.”

Pentagon officials tell Fox News that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was kept in solitary confinement for two years by his Taliban captors. Officials at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio will brief reporters about Bergdahl's condition at 4 p.m. ET.

Salisbury, MD – Do not miss the iconic Bill Cosby on his sell-out Comedy Central “Far From Finished” Tour. One of America’s most beloved comedians of all time, Bill Cosby, whose comedy transcends age, gender and cultural barriers, is making a rare appearance at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center on Friday, June 20 at 8 p.m. Cosby has captivated generations of fans with his comedy routines, iconic albums and best-selling books, including "Fatherhood," "Time Flies" and his current bestseller, "I Didn’t Ask to Be Born, (But I’m Glad I Was.)"

Tickets range from $38.50 to $84 plus fees and go on sale Friday, April 4 at 10 a.m. Tickets can be purchased online atwww.WicomicoCivicCenter.org, by phone at 410.548.4911 or in person at the WY&CC Box Office, which is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Bill Cosby broke television’s racial barrier with "I Spy," becoming the first African American to co-star on a television series while winning three consecutive Emmys. He created and produced the Emmy-winning cartoon "Fat Albert" and the "Cosby Kids," which began airing in the 1970s and was made into a film in 2004. The show, based upon Cosby’s childhood in Philadelphia, was designed to educate and entertain.

The former Navy serviceman’s illustrious list of accomplishments includes roles on the children’s educational show "Electric Company" and creating and producing the Emmy award winning "Little Bill," which is based on his bestselling book series. Cosby has received the Kennedy Center Honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (America’s highest civilian honor), the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and the Marian Anderson Award. Among his many awards for his stand-up comedy albums are five Grammy Awards, eight Gold and five Platinum records.

Perhaps Cosby’s greatest contribution to American entertainment and culture is "The Cosby Show," about a close-knit, upper class black family. Cosby said his intent was to portray an American family. Time magazine called the show “an encouraging sign of maturity in matters of race.” "The Cosby Show" dominated the No. 1 spot for years, earning nearly unanimous critical praise. Life magazine described the program as “a gentle, whimsical, warmhearted” show whose “delicious ordinariness of its pleasures and tribulations has given millions a fresh, laughter-splashed perspective on their own domestic lives.”

Mobile app developer can no longer deceive consumers by claiming its photo and video messages "disappear forever"Snapchat also alleged to have collected personal information from children under age 13 without parental consent, in violation of federal law

Baltimore, MD - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that he has secured a settlement from Snapchat, Inc., over alleged deceptive trade practices and violations of federal laws intended to protect children's privacy online. The mobile application by the same name, which is popular among teens and pre-teens, is used on smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices to send photograph and video messages called "snaps."

"Despite Snapchat's marketing claims to the contrary, no company can fully prevent content you send to someone else from being copied, shared or posted online," said Attorney General Gansler. "Companies that operate on the Internet or on mobile devices, especially those popular among youth, have a responsibility to protect their users' privacy and to be up front about what personal information they collect and the permanency of uploaded files."

According to Attorney General Gansler, Snapchat misled consumers when it represented that snaps are only temporary and will disappear after they are opened and viewed by the recipient. In fact, recipients of snaps can capture or copy them for later viewing and distribution. Consequently, consumers may have sent sensitive snaps that they intended not to be saved or seen by anyone but the recipient, only to discover that they were saved or distributed to others.

Being at the right place in the right time has many perks, but if you have a camera with you, it gets much better. These people managed to capture one in a lifetime photos, giving us the pleasure of seeing moments we would hardly ever witness.

SNOW HILL — The search continues for a policy that will offset some of the money that Worcester County is losing every year to operate its landfills while still avoiding unreasonably high trash deposit fees.

“You’re not going to fee your way out of this,” said Commissioner Virgil Shockley last week.

Currently, county landfills run at a huge deficit every year and have done so for the past several years. This year the county wants to cut away some of that red ink and has proposed raising the cost of transfer station permits from $60 to $100. It could add a second, pay-as-you-throw option where every trash bag taken to the station would cost $1.

Back pain. It’s something virtually everyone experiences at some point in life, striking 80 percent of all Americans. It's a leading cause of hospital emergency room visits and a primary reason billions of dollars are spent each year on painkillers, back surgery, and other expensive treatments.

But Patrick Roth, M.D., one of the nation's top neurosurgeons, says there's a better way to banish back pain — whether it's caused by arthritis, disc problems, or that weekend warrior mentality that causes so many to overdo it at the gym, on the tennis court, or the golf course.

In his new book, "The End of Back Pain," Dr. Roth — the chairman of neurosurgery at Hackensack University Medical Center — details how to eliminate discomfort in as little as six weeks through a series of easy-to-perform exercises that strengthen the core muscles of the back.

The United States once had Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in custody at a detention facility in Iraq, but president Barack Obama let him go, it was revealed on Friday.

Al Baghdadi was among the prisoners released in 2009 from the U.S.'s now-closed Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in Iraq.

But now five years later he is leading the army of ruthless extremists bearing down on Baghdad who want to turn the country into an Islamist state by blazing a bloody trail through towns and cities, executing Iraqi soldiers, beheading police officers and gunning down innocent civilians.

On Tuesday, June 10, 2014, at the City of Fruitland’s regularly scheduled City Council meeting, Council President, Richard “Lee” Outen Jr. stepped down from the council. He advised that he has recently purchased a home for his family outside of Fruitland City and will no longer be qualified to remain on the Council. The Council thanked Lee for his leadership in the many accomplishments the Council has achieved during his term, and wished the very best in his future endeavors.

Members of Congress, many of them military veterans who fought in Iraq, pummeled the Obama administration on Thursday for its 2011 troop withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country.

They argued that leaving a detachment of U.S. troops there would have prevented the al-Qaeda-related group ISIL, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, from steamrolling a murderous path from Mosul to towns near Baghdad.

On Wednesday the group took control of Tikrit, the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

ISIL militants have beheaded a crucified Iraqis who stand in the way of their push for a Shariah-compliant state that stretches across sections of Syria and northern Iraq.

A recent article from CBS News summed up one of the major problems with the economic recovery: For most people, it doesn't exist.

While we may hear reports of rising home prices, decreasing unemployment and rising wages, a closer examination reveals that most of the benefits of the recovery goes to the highest income earners, leaving most Americans no better off.

In housing, for example, the article stated that "sales of the most expensive homes were up 21.1 percent through April of this year, while they've fallen 7.6 percent for the rest of the market. That follows a gain of 35.7 percent in 2013 for the top 1 percent and just 10.1 percent for less-expensive homes."

No wonder a CBS News/New York Times poll showed that 69 percent of Americans believe the economy is in bad shape, and 66 percent believe it isn't getting any better.

We often say that the recovery is fake, and it is. But more importantly, even the fake recovery doesn't extend to most of the economy, because it is only focused on pumping up the asset bubbles, particularly in the stock market.

(June 13, 2014) – The Ocean City Police Department is asking the Ocean City community for assistance in a case involving a strong-arm robbery. In the early morning hours of June 12, 2014, Ocean City police were dispatched to the 94thStreet 7-11 convenience store (9404 Coastal Highway) in reference to a robbery that had just occurred. Upon arrival, employees stated to officers that two suspects had entered the store, assaulted an employee and stole an undisclosed amount of cash from the register in addition to an employee’s personal cell phone.

The first suspect in this case is a black male, approximately 6’ to 6’04” tall with a medium build. At the time of the incident, the suspect was wearing a bright green hoodie, sunglasses, light gray jeans and white sneakers. The second suspect is described as a black male, approximately 6’ to 6’06” tall with a thin build. This suspect was wearing a light brown hoodie, blue jeans and black and blue sneakers at the time of the incident. Both suspects look to be between the ages of 18-25.

Economics professor Dave Brat crushed House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary Tuesday night, in a campaign that was mostly about Cantor’s supporting amnesty for 11 million illegal aliens.

This marks the first time a U.S. House majority leader has ever lost a primary election.

His crushing defeat reinforces a central point: Whenever the voters know an election is about immigration, they will always vote against more immigration — especially amnesty.

Cantor spent more than $5 million on his campaign. Brat spent less than $150,000. But Brat made the election about Cantor’s support for amnesty, so he won.

The pro-amnesty crowd — i.e., everyone except the American people — promptly lost its collective mind. The amnesty shills went on the attack, insisting that Cantor’s historic defeat had nothing to do amnesty. Brat’s triumph was touted as simply a victory for the “tea party.”

BERLIN — Funding from the town of Berlin to the Berlin Fire Company (BFC) will double in the next budget year, from $200,000 to $400,000, though still short of the original funding that was severed in 2012.

The Berlin Mayor and Council indicated during their budgeting process this spring that they intended to up the amount of funding being granted to the BFC but were waiting on the results of an audit of the company and to sit down with its leadership. At Monday’s meeting, a motion was made to grant the BFC $400,000 split between two funds.

“As a result of those meetings, the Mayor and Council have added $250,000 in operating funds for fire and ambulance services,” said Mayor Gee Williams, “and an additional $150,000 to be held in reserves for the Berlin Fire Company for the purchase of firefighting vehicles and ambulances. The total allocation for the Berlin Fire Company for FY15 is $400,000 and represents the largest budget allocation in the town’s general fund to any one entity or service.”

(WHITEFORD, MD) – Maryland State Police investigators are searching for the person or persons responsible for two bank robberies in two days that occurred in close proximity in Harford County.

Shortly after 2:00 p.m. on June 10, 2014, a white male, believed to be between 25 and 35 years old, entered the PNC Bank in the 2400-block of Whiteford Road, Whiteford, Md. The man handed a bank employee a note demanding money. He did not display or imply he had a weapon. The suspect left with an undetermined amount of money.

Just after 2:30 p.m. on June 12, 2014, either the same man or one with a very similar description, entered the National Bank of Rising Sun in the 3500-block of Conowingo Road, Street, Md. He handed a bank employee the same or a very similar note demanding money. Again, he did not display or imply he had a weapon and left the bank with an undetermined amount of money. No one was injured in either of the robberies.

Maryland State Police Criminal Enforcement Division investigators are investigating both robberies. Troopers are asking anyone with information about the identity of this suspect or who may have been in the area of these banks when the robberies occurred, to contact them immediately at 410-879-2101, ext. 316. Callers may remain confidential.

The investigations are continuing. A bank photo of the suspect may be seen on Twitter @MDSP.

The numbers that you are about to see are likely to shock you. They prove that the global financial Ponzi scheme is far more extensive than most people would ever dare to imagine. As you will see below, the total amount of debts in the world is now more than three times greater than global GDP. In other words, you could take every single good and service produced on the entire planet this year, next year and the year after that and it still would not be enough to pay off all the debt. But even that number pales in comparison to the exposure that big global banks have to derivatives contracts.

It is hard to put into words how reckless they have been. At the low end of the estimates, the total exposure that global banks have to derivatives contracts is 710 trillion dollars. That is an amount of money that is almost unimaginable. And the reality of the matter is that there is really not all that much actual “money” in circulation today. In fact, as you will read about below, there is only a little bit more than a trillion dollars of U.S. currency that you can actually hold in your hands in existence. If we all went out and tried to close our bank accounts and investment portfolios all at once, that would create a major league crisis. The truth is that our financial system is little more than a giant pyramid scheme that is based on debt and paper promises. It is literally a miracle that it has survived for so long without collapsing already.

The president is an ardent progressive. This dastardly philosophy of government was brought into the American mainstream 100 years ago by a Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, and a Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. Its guiding principle is the belief that government — not individuals — is the chief engine of human progress. If that means government tearing down rich persons to help poor persons, if that means the massive redistribution of wealth, if it means federal regulation of every conceivable occupation or productive endeavor, if it means fighting an unjust war, progressives are for it.

Before the progressives, the dominant political thinkers in America were Madisonians. James Madison, who kept the notes at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 — notes that eventually formed much of the language of the Constitution — made clear what the purposes of the Constitution were: to prescribe discrete areas of human endeavor in which the new federal government could legislate; to set forth open-ended areas of human behavior in which no government could legislate; and to leave the remaining areas of governmental endeavor in the hands of the states. The areas delegated to the federal government are only 17 in number and generally are referred to as federal powers. The areas in which no government may regulate are infinite and generally are referred to as natural rights.

Even as we relax at our home on Herring Creek in West Ocean City we get to enjoy the views of the jets and planes participating in the Air Show in Ocean City.It's funny, so many people complain about the loud cars and motorcycles when they come to town but let me assure you, these jets are much louder but very cool to watch.

During the operation, ICE officers arrested a total of 27 individuals; seven immigration fugitives who ignored lawful orders of removal, eight individuals who illegally re-entered the United States after being deported and 12 other immigration violators. It's a felony for someone to re-enter the United States after being deported, which if convicted, is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Of the total 27 arrested, 22 had criminal histories including assault, battery, burglary, child endangerment, counterfeiting, disorderly conduct, DUI, heroin possession, prostitution, resisting arrest and theft.

The operation was conducted by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Fugitive Operations Teams on the Eastern Shore as part of the agency's commitment to prioritize the removal of criminal aliens and egregious immigration violators. These arrests occurred in the following Maryland cities: one in Eden; 11 in Easton; one in Fruitland; two in Ocean City; two in Ocean Pines and 10 in Salisbury. Arrestees ranged in age from 20 to 57 years old.

On Tuesday evening Council Member Lee Outen made the announcement he was stepping down from the City Council of Fruitland.As some of you may be wondering WHY, it's very simple. Lee and his Bride had been struggling to find a new home for their Family. While they had searched high and low for a home within the City limits, they fell in love with a home just outside the City and being the honorable man that he is, he made sure everyone knew what was going on and stepped down.Considering things slow down quite a bit during the summer months, Lee remained living in their Fruitland home while his Bride worked on settling in at their new home. Lee wanted the transaction for Fruitland to be an easy one so there will not be a special election. They'll simply wait until the next upcoming election to fill the empty position.

Fans of Vitaminwater are demanding that parent company Coca-Cola drop a new formula that uses stevia, a low-calorie sweetener known for its metallic aftertaste.

Coca-Cola Co. changed the formula for its full-calorie Vitaminwater in May, and the new bottles have been hitting shelves nationwide ever since.

Previously, the drinks were sweetened with a mix of crystalline fructose and sugar. Now they are sweetened with a mix of sugar and stevia, a natural sweetener companies use to reduce the sugar content in drinks. The new Vitaminwater still has the same 120 calories per bottle, however.

The Defense Department's top lawyer has been drawn into the controversy over Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Chief Counsel Stephen Preston tells the House Armed Services Committee, the exchange of Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders is part of a long tradition. Preston acknowledges it's not state versus state warfare because the Taliban isn't a country. But, he says, the United States and the Taliban had detained combatants held by opposing forces. He says it wasn't necessary to classify detainees as prisoners of war to make them eligible for an exchange. Last week's switch-off left members of Congress from both parties upset with the exchange and that the administration didn't notify them in advance.

The FBI is investigating employees of the Veterans Affairs Department accused of falsifying patient waiting lists. Director James Comey says agents in the bureau's Phoenix field office are leading the investigation. They are taking their cue from the VA inspector general, who is conducting a national audit of VA patient schedules. Comey says, "we will follow wherever the facts take us." He spoke at a House hearing. He received praise from members afterwards, several of whom had urged the bureau to look into potential criminal misconduct.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation aimed at letting people refinance their student loans at lower rates, a pre-ordained outcome that gave Democrats a fresh election-year talking point against the GOP.

The 56-38 vote fell short of the 60 that would have been needed to advance to debate on the measure by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Her bill would have let millions of borrowers, some with years-old debt and interest rates topping 7 percent or more, refinance at today's lower rates.

The bill would have been paid for with the so-called Buffett Rule, which sets minimum tax rates for people making over $1 million.

Salisbury-based construction firm Gillis Gilkerson is gearing up to oversee the construction of the new Ocean City Beach Patrol headquarters, after having won the city’s first-ever construction management bid for the project.

Earlier this year, the city decided to change its bidding process and, instead of hiring a general contractor directly, hire a management firm who would then oversee both the final design of the project and the hiring of subcontractors.

“It’s a much more seamless operation, where the people who have to build it are involved earlier on,” said Gillis Gilkerson President Dwight Miller.

Helen Ramirez-Odell thought she'd done her research when she selected Spark Energy in 2011 for her electricity. So she was taken aback earlier this year when her monthly rate suddenly jumped by 50 percent.

"When I realized it, I called Spark Energy to ask for an explanation, and they said their rates weren't guaranteed, they were variable," the Chicago resident said.

In response to a growing number of complaints from electricity customers about pricing, the Citizens Utility Board and the city of Chicago on Wednesday petitioned the state's electricity regulator to launch a statewide investigation into misleading marketing tactics by some electricity suppliers.

Have you heard the one about the “economic recovery” in the United States? It’s quite funny, but it is not actually true. Every day, the establishment media points to the fact that global stock markets have soared to unprecedented heights as evidence that the economy is improving. But just because a bunch of wealthy people have gotten temporarily even richer on paper does not mean that the real economy is in good shape. In fact, as you will see below, things just continue to get even tougher for the poor and the middle class. Retail stores are closing at the fastest pace since the fall of Lehman Brothers, the rate of homeownership in this country is the lowest that it has been in 19 years, one out of every five families do not have a single member that is employed, and one out of every five children is living in poverty. We are working harder, earning less and going into more debt. With each passing day, the middle class gets a little bit smaller and the ranks of the poor get a little bit larger. But at least the stock market is doing great, eh?

If the U.S. economy really was doing well, government dependence would not be at epidemic levels.

If the U.S. economy really was doing well, the percentage of Americans that have a job would not be lower than it was when the last recession supposedly “ended”.

Nobody that takes an honest look at the numbers can honestly say that the U.S. economy has recovered. The following are 19 reasons why you can laugh when anyone tells you that the economy is in good shape…

#1 RadioShack just announced that it is going to close an additional 200 stores on top of what it was already planning to close.

Mercifully, as a businessman, I never had to deal with any union issues. I did, however, at one point have to grapple with a salaried employee who, years into her employment, decided to get cute and threaten a state case to retrieve overtime wages based on the idea her job should have been an hourly one. She did not prevail. But it deepened my dislike for any prospective interference of the state into such matters.

Back to the topic of school, however, I spent all twelve years of my pre-college education in public schools. For elementary schools, exactly three of the teachers were excellent, and three sucked beyond belief. To this day, I question how much better a thinker I would be if all six of those years were good ones. Subsequent years were also hit-and-miss (and let me be clear, all twelve of these years were in good, solid, middle-class schools; not the utterly crappy schools that so many millions have to attend).

Wall Street and mainstream economists are abuzz that we’re seeing a recovery in the US due to the latest jobs data. These folks are not only missing the big picture, but they’re not even reading the fine print (more on this in a moment).

The reality is that what’s happening in the US today is not a cyclical recession, but a one in 100 year, secular economic shift.

See for yourself. Here’s duration of unemployment. Official recessions are marked with gray columns. The Fed has spent over $4 trillion…. and this has barely dropped by a month or two.

PARSONSBURG — Antique meets modern at the Route 346 Emporium in Parsonsburg. Billed as “5,000 square feet of treasures,” the Emporium contains everything from furniture to tools and art to memorabilia to collectibles.

As important as the items on sale is the atmosphere, which is open and neighborly, a throwback to the building’s original days as a community gathering spot at the turn of the 20th Century.

“The store actually opened in 1910 as a country store,” said co-owner Joe Holloway.

And it remained a country store up until Joe Holloway and his wife Faye decided to try something new starting in May of 2012. Since both enjoy collectibles, antiques and furniture, that’s what they decided to fill the large store with. It’s a combination of business and hobby that the Holloways are passionate about.

A first-of-its-kind court ruling that concluded California's union-backed teacher tenure, layoff and dismissal laws infringe on students' rights to an equal public education adds fire to a debate over whether the job protections afforded professional educators are partly to blame for what ails the nation's schools, experts said.

A judge in Los Angeles on Tuesday sided with nine students who sued to overturn the state statutes governing teacher hiring and firing, saying they served no compelling purpose and had led to an unfair, nonsensical system that drove excellent new teachers from the classroom too soon while allowing incompetent senior ones to remain.

The practices harm students in a way that "shocks the conscience" and have "a disproportionate burden on poor and minority students," Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu said in striking down the five laws as violations of the California Constitution.

Similar civil rights arguments have been made in the past to challenge school desegregation and recently to contest inequities in school funding, but the California decision makes the first time that a court has declared teacher tenure and related job guarantees unconstitutional, said William Koski, director of the Youth and Education Law Project at Stanford University.

OCEAN CITY — The return of the U.S. Military teams highlights this year’s Ocean City Air Show, the seventh installment of the annual June event.

This year’s event will feature some of the country’s top military and civilian performers, acrobatic demonstrations, formation flight and parachute teams. Rehearsal day is Friday, June 13 with official performances planned for Saturday and Sunday afternoons, June 14 and 15.

General viewing is free from the beach starting three blocks to the north and south of the Show Center, which is from 14th to 17th streets on the beach.

Why have we turned our backs on the principles that this nation was founded upon? Many of those that founded this nation bled and died so that we could experience "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". And yet we have tossed their ideals aside as if they were so much rubbish. Our founders had experienced the tyranny of big government (the monarchy) and the tyranny of the big banks and feudal lords, and they wanted something very different for the citizens of the new republic that they were forming. They wanted a country where private property was respected and hard work was rewarded. They wanted a country where the individual was empowered, and where everyone could own land and start businesses. They wanted a country where there were severe restrictions on all large collections of power (government, banks and corporations all included). They wanted a country where freedom and liberty were maximized and where ordinary people had the power to pursue their dreams and build better lives for their families. And you know what? While no system is ever perfect, the experiment that our founders originally set up worked beyond their wildest dreams. But now we are killing it. Why in the world would we want to do that?

Most people are under the illusion that the United States has a "capitalist economy" today, but that simply is not accurate. At best, we have a "mixed economy" that is becoming a little bit more socialist with each passing day. We pay dozens of different types of taxes each year, and some Americans actually end up giving more of their earnings to the government than they keep themselves. But that is still not enough, and so our state governments have accumulated astounding amounts of debt, and our federal government has amassed the largest single debt that the world has ever seen. If future generations of Americans get the chance, they will curse us for the chains of debt that we have placed upon their shoulders.

So what do our government officials do with all of this money?

Well, today approximately 70 percent of all federal government activity involves taking money from some Americans and giving it to other Americans.

The U.S. is seriously depressed, with about one in 10 American adults reporting depression.

Just as depression varies from state to state, and between the employed and unemployed, rates vary significantly by industry, finds a new study we first saw written up at Discover.

The percentage of workers who are depressed ranges from 6.9% in the amusement-recreation industry to 16.2% in the passenger-transit industry. Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the University of Cincinnati, and Highmark Inc. (a Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer) collaborated on the report, published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

“Misclassification of wild horses as a non-native species is politically, not scientifically driven,” said Ginger Kathrens, executive director of The Cloud Foundation. “Wild horses are severely endangered but without recognition of current scientific evidence of their native status, they could become extinct.”

In the early 1900s, two to five million wild horses freely roamed across America, says Jenni Barnes, staff attorney, FoA’s Wildlife Law Program.

“Now there are less than 35,000 on public lands, where they are supposed to be protected,” Barnes said. “The petition states that these few remaining horses are divided into even smaller herds, whose populations are so low that they are susceptible to being wiped out completely by a chance event or change in the environment. Instead of protecting these horses, or just leaving them alone, a government agency, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), plans to remove even more horses from the range with expensive and cruel tactics, such as helicopter driving.”

In an interview during a media tour to promote her latest memoir, Hillary Clinton acknowledged that she kept extensive notes during the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi but said that she won’t turn them over to congressional investigators if asked.

“Did you keep a diary during your time?” NBC News’ Cynthia McFadden asked Clinton in an interview on Tuesday.

“I kept a lot of notes,” said Clinton.

McFadden followed up, asking the former secretary of state what she would do with the notes if they were requested by a House Select Committee appointed to investigate the attack — which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.

“If the committee wants your notes, would you turn those over?”

“They can read it in the book,” said Clinton, referencing her book “Hard Choices,” which was released amid much buzz on Tuesday.